WesWhite

(edited because can't work out what I mean to say about Brittany Murphy in a sensitive way) Any track which a facebook campaign will work for will have other things going for it too, I really meant to say that the Journey one was boosted by one such, and so only got *quite* so high because of that.

Not that it's going to make any difference, but I inexplicably voted for Cheryl and very much wish I'd voted for Lily.

Paulo - yes, all the other tracks are catching up to RATM quite fast. Certainly looked like Joe at least is likely to overtake them by the end of the week if not within days.

That's true, that's really interesting that that got in there and not Alexandra's! I guess given that this is a global chart one ought also to be looking out for American Idol acts for equivalence. Although I presume that the RATM top 10 ranking is almost entirely from the UK phenomenon this week. Incidentally tracks don't have to actually be on last.fm to be scrobbled on there so I was very surprised to see Joe appear nowhere at all despite 450,000 sales.

I don't know if any of you will be particularly interested in this, but. Every year when the various major music publications put out their 'best of the year' lists, I put them together partly for interest and partly to help with stock choice and promotion at the library where I work. The rules are - 1. The more lists an album features in, the higher up it goes 2. Within that, the higher up an album is in *any one* list, the higher up it goes, and 3. No album can appear higher on this chart than it does in any individual publication's list. [in other words rule 2 supercedes rule 1 in circumstances where that might otherwise occur] Does that make sense to anyone at all other than me?! Anyway, this is the top 10 for this year, combining Q, Uncut, Mojo, Rough Trade and NME's 'albums of the year' lists. The numbers afterwards show their placing from those individual publications. 1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion :: 4 / 1 / 1/ 11/ 5 2. The Horrors - Primary Colours :: 39 / 20 / 4 / 3 / 1 3. Florence and the Machine - Lungs :: 2 / 16 / 7 / 25 / 26 4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz! :: 3 / 9 / 10 / 12 / 3 5. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca :: 33 / 3 / 16 / 52 / 20 6. Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter :: 38 / 42 / 3 / 42 / 44 7. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers :: 41 / 5 / 32 / 21 / 4 8. Fever Ray :: 20 / 12 / 18 / 4 / 9 9. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest :: 13 / 8 / 13 / 6 / 6 10. f*** Buttons - Tarot Sport :: 37 / 36 / 8 / 8 / 8 Other placings available on request!

I bought the Tinariwen album Imidiwan for my mum for Christmas, really awesome album, I think it would have done even better on the end-of-year lists if it had been English language. Also the Four Tet remixes collection for a friend.

http://www.last.fm/charts/track RATM up 127 places. Can you see any X-factor acts in there?

Ah, sorry. Must've fallen asleep in that bit. :P

Jay's right that none of these campaigns are likely to be big enough to really make an impact, and most importantly the Rage campaign already had momentum before last week's chart opened - it was all, Saturday midnight, go go go! We were even having to hold each other back, we got it to number 80 last week without trying. That said, the Journey track is only up there because it was rumoured the X-factor winner was going to record that - that's off a much smaller FB campaign - so you might certainly see some chart.

Did you guys see this? http://www.7digital.com/charts/track (for those that can't be bothered to click, today's 7 digital chart - documenting sales from yesterday, presumably - shows versions of KITN at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8.)

I vote for an original song by an independent band or artist. But not necessarily a 'christmas' one.

That's simply not true, many Ragers were buying the live version of the song before - that's exactly why it was at number 138 at midday! It rose up to number 11 over a period of just a couple of hours, but now that those sales are in there it'll fall away more gradually. (this was @xmas presence, sorry, slow typing)

I don't understand - surely that would make perfect sense for a rolling 48 hour chart?

Victor - those are betting exchanges, though, entirely determined by the money put on and not by any bookmaker's assessment of what might happen. It could just be a load of people who've seen the iTunes bars and think it must be a surefire thing.

I was well into the Rage campaign but agree with B.A. Baracus (is that really you? I didn't know you cared so much about the UK chart..) - agree that I wasn't very impressed by the way the nokia thing, for example, was dealt with by some group members. The OCC allow for people enthusiastically buying a few copies, but sharing tips on how to get as many as you can 'without being detected' (er... unless you post it on a public message board, maybe?) is definitely not the same as that. As far as 'spam' goes, though, it was nothing to the inescapability of X-Factor promotion campaigns. And the whole point was that XF is so behemothic that it takes a huge effort to remotely challenge it. You can't have it both ways - want a number 1 single campaign, but want it to be done on the quiet.

Agreed, and particularly on the exchanges it only shows that a lot of people are backing them, nothing more - that's why I posted it in in the 'poll' section : )

edit: in case anyone would see it as a spoiler. Latest odds from the betting exchanges

Very odd assertion that, that being a handsome young white man counts against you. Especially in the pop charts, and especially from the Guardian stable.

I think this talk is ridiculous. Joe will almost certainly be number 1 next week if he isn't tomorrow, and he had 10million people vote for him only a week ago, I sincerely doubt it's going to trouble him as much as a few people think it is. And if it DOES bother him that much then it's a needed reality-check. I would think he'd be more likely to have a nervous breakdown (which I certainly hope does not happen and see no reason to think will happen) as a result of X-factor than as a result of not getting the number one. Most people don't get the Christmas number one every single day of their lives.

It's a really even split.

1, 3, 4, 20, 92 and 94.

different versions of the ratm track are now at numbers 1, 3, 4 and 20 on amazon - possibly lower down as well, i only checked the front page

That is because that Portishead track is exclusive to 7digital. I'm not sure that their chart is purely based on sales as they installed Joe's track at number 1 as soon as it was released, and RATM were nowhere to be seen in the top 10 - but if it is based on sales then that would still account for him being ahead of them (or at least of any individual version) there.